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Agenda

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2018 Annual OSHA and Workplace Safety Conference—every safety director knows that OSHA’s General Duty Clause requires employers to protect employees against “recognized hazards likely to cause serious injuries or death.” According to OSHA, 2 million American workers are victims of workplace violence each year. And the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that on average 551 workers per year are killed as a result of work-related homicides—78 percent from shootings.

At the same time, explosions from fires, flammable liquids and dust are some of the most catastrophic events that can affect companies. These types of explosions can cause employee deaths, serious injuries and entire destruction of buildings.

And OSHA’s new silica rules limiting exposure to respirable crystalline silica—small dust-like particles that can get into lungs—is estimated to save over 600 lives and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis each year. The rule covers about 300,000 General Industry workers in industries such as brick manufacturing, foundries and hydraulic fracturing. Respirators are used to protect employees from silica, and are used by emergency responders for explosion rescues.

Covering all of these as well as important updates and changes to OSHA regulations, the Pennsylvania Chamber—renowned for its quality educational compliance programs—presents OSHA compliance specialists and nationally known safety consultants. They’ll explain recommended programs, and present real life examples and best practices to help keep your employees safe and your company in compliance:

Electronic Recordkeeping Updates—under a final rule that became effective in 2017, some of the recorded information on workplace injuries and illnesses needs to be submitted to OSHA electronically. OSHA will provide updates to the electronic tracking system, explain how to use the system and answer questions regarding the requirements.

Workplace Violence Plans and Active Shooter Strategies—with two million American workers victims of some form of workplace violence each year, and companies seeing increased incidents of gun-related homicide, we will discuss the basic elements that should be included in all workplace violence plans with a special emphasis on the active shooter. For the first time, we will present the topic from two perspectives: from law enforcement and from a company safety director who has a plan in place. Also new is the discussion of those companies that allow employees to bring firearms to the workplace and the policies they have in place concerning the use of weapons.

Preventing Fire, Flammable Liquid and Dust Explosions—both the vapors from a flammable liquid, and the fine particles of dust suspended in air create an explosion hazard when confined by an enclosure. Explosions from fires, flammable liquids and dust can be catastrophic events. We’ll explain the conditions that lead to fire and flammable liquids explosions, explain how dust explosions occur, review OSHA’s Standard, and describe recommendations on what safety elements you need to have in place, how to handle and store flammable liquids and tips for dust control prevention.

OSHA’s New Silica Rules—OSHA issued a Final Rule in 2016 to limit workers exposure to respirable crystalline silica. The rule reduces the permissible exposure limit; and requires employers to use engineering controls or respirators to limit worker exposure, develop a written exposure control plan, train workers on silica risks, and provide medical exams to monitor highly exposed workers. We will review how to measure the amount of silica your workers may be exposed to, steps to protect your workers, your written exposure plan, and training your employees.

Respirator Protection Standard—an estimated five million workers are required to wear respirators in 1.3 million workplaces throughout the U.S. Respirators protect workers against insufficient oxygen environments, harmful dust, fogs, smoke, mists, gases, vapors and sprays. Compliance with the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard could avert hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses annually. We will cover procedures for safe, effective use of respirators; the schedule for cleaning, inspecting and discarding respirators; setting up a system to replace cartridges and filters; training requirements and more.

Event Venue

The Hershey Lodge has blocked rooms at a special rate of $159 for conference attendees for the evening of March 14, 2018. Call 855-729-3108 or 717-533-3311 to make your overnight room reservations, and advise the booking agent that you are attending the PA Chamber’s OSHA Conference.